Janet Daley was born in America where she began her political life on the Left as an undergraduate at Berkeley. She moved to Britain (and to the Right) in 1965 where she spent nearly twenty years in academic life before becoming a political commentator: all factors that inform her writing on British and American policy and politicians.

'Workfare' has not collapsed: the backlash against the SWP has saved it

Very sorry to have to contradict a brother blogger but Brendan O'Neill's alarm at the "collapse of workfare" is premature. The Department of Work and Pensions is very pleased about the press and public backlash at the weekend against the SWP's wrecking campaign. As I made clear in my column in the Sunday Telegraph and the paper's investigation into the hard-left associations of the protests' core organisation showed, much of the reporting of companies "pulling out" of the scheme has been misinformed and deliberately misleading.

Some of the retailers who were reported as withdrawing were not actually participating at all, and others (such as Poundland) were involved in a quite different programme involving the long -term unemployed rather than young people on Jobseekers' Allowance who had never been in employment. The mainstream media (which is to say, the BBC) not only paid an absurd amount of attention to the demonstrations – and electronic communications – of a tiny number of quasi-professional activists, but they then over-enthusiastically and sloppily reported the alleged withdrawal of participating firms (all of which were high street retail businesses who actually make up a small proportion of businesses involved in the venture).

The DWP has now scheduled a meeting with those retailers who have become fearful of bad publicity through association with a scheme that is being so loudly bad-mouthed by the Guardian and Newsnight, in which reassurances (but not concessions of principle) will be the order of the day. It is widely expected that they will not only be able to keep almost all the original participants on board but by the end of the week be able to announce some new recruits as well. In the end, the SWP/Guardian/BBC troika will have strengthened the resolve – and the public clarity – of the government's plan. Which just goes to show that if you are up for an organised fightback, you can beat the Left's bullies at their own game. Government ministers from other departments please note.